Akira: The Life and Death of A Live-Action Remake.

Well, as they say, everything comes to an end. Some endings definitely have more satisfying results than others; but this one is honestly not surprising. Earlier this year, the long-troubled plans to adapt Akira into a live-action film came to an end as Warner Bros. (ahead of their upcoming split from Discovery) chose to not pursue the project further after the director's departure. With that, alongside a brief failed attempt from Sony prior to the early 2000s, is a good enough time to go over the last 25 years of trying. Here is a look at Akira: The Life and Death of a live-action remake.

Let's start with the first attempt from Sony- by the late 1990s and early 2000s; the original film Katsuhiro Otomo and the graphic novels had already established themselves as cornerstones of science fiction. Admittedly, there's not much out there about this version; as it never got too far in development before the rights were picked up by Warner Bros. (a future prospective partner of Netflix or Paramount-Skydance), kicking off a long line of attempts that never made it to varying degrees of faithfulness.

Courtesy: Kodansha

The first of WB's attempts to remake the film took shape in the year 2002, which had Stephen Norrington attached to direct. Norrington had a handful of credits to his name before this, notably the 1998 adaptation of Blade. Unfortunately, the experience he had making 2003's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen; coupled with the film's poor reception and box office returns (talk persists of a reboot that's more faithful to the graphic novel) caused him to retire from filmmaking. His most recent credit was special effects work a decade ago on the little-known Harbinger Down.

In the year 2008, they tried again with Ruari Robinson at the helm; with the screenwriter of this version being the prolific Gary Whitta; best known for being the co-writer of Rogue One. Though Robinson had not directed a feature-length project at this point in his career; his visual flair and short films did give him potential. Eventually, Robinson left the project to focus on other ventures, with his lone feature film credit being 2013's The Last Days on Mars.

A year after Robinson left, brothers Allen and Albert Hughes took the reins. The movie was then pushed back from 2009 to 2011; with Whitta's script being retooled by Hawk Otsby and Mark Fergus. Here is where things really started to go awry. This incarnation was infamous for the creative liberties it took with the source material; especially the casting. The Neo-Manhattan aspect in particular was reviled, with not even the claims the story would have the city fall under Japanese moguls saving it (two words: "lost decade").

Despite the claims to justify the changes, the response to this version was near-universally negative. Eventually, the Hughes brothers left the project; with the script being retooled yet again by recurring Wizarding World scribe Steve Kloves (just dealing with this event series as it comes, for a number of reasons). For the first few years of the 2010s, this draft had Jaume Collet-Serra attached to direct. Though he had experience with a number of genre films before and since, his dismissive comments about the source material and the entirety of the background that created it were not compelling did not sit well with lots of people. Naturally, not long after this furor; he left the project altogether.

The final attempt came from Taika Waititi, whose mix of both smaller-scale and big-budget productions made him a natural fit. He was also willing to remain faithful to the original manga; even more so than the 1988 animated film (which only covered three of the published volumes). However, between his being in high demand as a filmmaker, the multiple changes in ownership for WB and the industry being rocked by both the pandemic and two strikes in 2023; the rights ultimately lapsed back to Kodansha in June 2025.

That being the case, the impact the original movie had shows that maybe we don't need it (especially given the less-than-stellar results of similar attempts). I'd argue that Stranger Things is likely the best unofficial version in live-action; especially now that it's concluded its five-season run. I will see you all in 2026- Happy New Year everyone.